Carlos Sainz Jr wrote:I also got surprised when I stayed in front of the Portugueses Derrick twins after my pit-stop because we were close and they stopped one lap earlier, I think I really pushed hard and that (plus three good stops according to Power's stats) gave me its fruits.

The word you are looking is Laf. I got stuck

Yeah, I kinda figured it out but I still wanted to brag a bit :p I'm kidding obv.

@Whip, I was looking at the competition's page on the site and I found some mistakes. For example Wurz's 6th place is counted on Day 6 and not Day 7; then on the schedule Flakemoore is reported as 2/8 instead of 2/9; and in the end, idk if this is made on purpose tho, there's written that only 8 races will count for final standings cause in the beginning there were just 9 tracks, so the total -1 like the previous season. Then you added one more race (Circly) so maybe you should fix it and make 9 best results (excluding test race) to count?

Carlos Sainz Jr wrote:@Whip, I was looking at the competition's page on the site and I found some mistakes. For example Wurz's 6th place is counted on Day 6 and not Day 7; then on the schedule Flakemoore is reported as 2/8 instead of 2/9

Thanks for reporting that. Should be fixed now.

Carlos Sainz Jr wrote:and in the end, idk if this is made on purpose tho, there's written that only 8 races will count for final standings cause in the beginning there were just 9 tracks, so the total -1 like the previous season. Then you added one more race (Circly) so maybe you should fix it and make 9 best results (excluding test race) to count?

I actually planned to keep it 8, so that people could feel more comfortable to miss a race. If many of you insist to be 9, I can change it.

After seeing the first couple of laps I couldn't figure out how Jormeli got to 2nd place, but well done, like a Finnish steak lost in a Nordic fjord called Tijny.

I've been thinking about pride and handicaps, and found that it is only my pride and nothing else really that is hurt by handicaps. "Muh muh I want to beat you on my own accord..." That is not going to happen anytime soon, and I can see how I would want to impose a handicap on myself should I win everything that's not FC related someday. Oh, am I too arrogant? That's too bad, because tomorrow I'll join you guys since I don't have to work

Jurgen, please don't give up, it sucks to even see it.

Magnam, is it because you have little time you do low fuel?

Azev, be less fair to Silva.

Silva, be less fair to Azev.

Laf, please kill all of the above so we may win and be gay lovers with Carlos.

Oompa wrote:After seeing the first couple of laps I couldn't figure out how Jormeli got to 2nd place, but well done

Last race handicap for T and me was 1% more fuel to what I needed last year and a pitstop in end of lap 6.T got away good, but probably drove slightly over sand in the early fast zig zag, so I came closer and steered left to prepare an overtake for the next straight in case Tijny wouldn't hit the curve so well. But also to avoid a possible "late break collision". Unfortunately, this opened a door for Jurgen behind me, I did not think about. He took it and T was saying bye bye for the race.I tried to get back the position, but Jurgen bumped into my side after the next curve, when I tried to keep him at the thin inside. But he likely would have kept the position anyway.Drove offroad later in an unaggressive overtake vs Whip and also 1-3 times when checking some TAB stats.And finally, a warp in lap 52 made me drive offroad - but that was irrelevant due to running out of fuel later.

Impressive was Jormeli's performance to me in the last laps in the race and in the first laps of the last 6 quali laps before the race. I won with a total time around 0.8sec off this year's record, which made me feel quite confident, despite Tijny was in solid lead and lost due to a mistake with a likely slightly better pace. Jormeli whatsoever could keep up in the first 2-3 laps. And in the last +-10 laps of the race, while I came closer step by step, he could stand the pressure and even keep me out of the draft zone. I thought I could likely wait for a mistake, but Jormeli forced me to push harder and could actually manage to kick my ass in the last +-5 laps. Well done, indeed.

Stats update:

new season lows:name (new season low (place), season best at last race - season low at last race) | differenceMike Nike 7,1-2 (-5) (started to notice fuel is an issue when having 1% left)X X X 15,3-11 (-4) (internet…)

My rear got fucked way too many times in the first laps, it was really annoying tbh. That also got me upset and I started to make few dirty turns too (sorry to the innocent Lemon for that), but I really don't get the reason why I should throw myself outside, despite I was in front, just to avoid some collision when no one gives a f***. It was a torture, for real.

Anyways, the track was cool and the level of the drivers was one of the highest this season I guess. Unfortunately I had to go for 3 stops 'cause of the damage and I spent most of my race alone not reaching Magnam and Laf in time but yeah, let's see the positive sides, we have a discord finally.

Carlos Sainz Jr wrote:My rear got fucked way too many times in the first laps, it was really annoying tbh. That also got me upset and I started to make few dirty turns too (sorry to the innocent Lemon for that), but I really don't get the reason why I should throw myself outside, despite I was in front, just to avoid some collision when no one gives a f***. It was a torture, for real.

Anyways, the track was cool and the level of the drivers was one of the highest this season I guess. Unfortunately I had to go for 3 stops 'cause of the damage and I spent most of my race alone not reaching Magnam and Laf in time but yeah, let's see the positive sides, we have a discord finally.

Have to agree with you Carlos, sometimes being nice is not the best option. Ayrton respects no one, he brakes too late and hits everyone in front of him.

I was already down do 80% damage when I hit reiniakken or whatever. This guy never races! So, 3 stops for me too.

I was with a good pace, catching up Magnam, Laf and Silva, but when I was almost smelling Magnam's ass, I got distracted watching Silva's time, and went out on the first curve. So, 23 laps left, it could still be possible. And it was! I guess Magnam and Laf also lost some time with their fights, and there I was! Those guys were very hard to overtake, but I got them. Too bad there were not enough laps to get a fight with Silva.

And Carlos, I really though you were coming with me to get them! You were making good laps. Too bad for those mistakes, man.

Offroad Time / lap (Shorter than 0.5 second offroads are not counted)Tijny quite often this time...Max Tre reduced it from 87 times to 72. But still :S

Pitting TimeRecord (from me) beaten by Carlos and Jurgen.

Average Pitting TimeRecord (from me) slightly beaten by myself

Start Fuel / End FuelT and me with the exact same values as in last year oO

Lorenzo's race:for his probably first nonghost race: somewhat solid, I think. Crashed into Silva in stint 1, but Silva probably should have kept the door open there and let him space, or? Oompa as well: he was overtaking Lorenzo at the inside, but then used the space of the road that was meant to be for Lorenzo -> Lorenzo lost 9sec+ due to that and a bit more due to damage in the following laps :S ...and went from place 5/6 to 8. There, Lorenzo had a slightly rough fight vs Silva, but nothing really intentional rough, I'd say. Another short fight vs Silva in stint 3 ended up in a well deserved 7th place - with a bit of luck even a 6th place was reachable if he wouldn't have made the visit to the forest after colliding with Oompa.

My race:for this race small handicap, T and me were together in a voice channel in Discord. That has led us to a bit more entertainment, but the additional distraction at least made me steer a bit wide in a couple curves (especially in curve 3). At some point I had to laugh when T had a sip out of his water bottle, driving with 1 hand (or actually none on the straight, using the "t"-key to lock the acceleration) and I had to think of all the other things T probably might be able to do while racing.While T did let me pass somewhat easily in lap 3 or so, we both rather expected that this would not be the last overtake. But my big fat blocking ass closed a lot of doors in the inside lines, whenever Tijny was trying to overtake. Luckily this did not happen so many times, because my warmup/practice advantage made me drive somewhat fast and consistent. Especially when T turned into beast mode, hunting the fastest lap, he caught up quickly and it was rather himself going accidentally offroad that probably saved my ass a couple of times, than my ability to drive as fast as him.

Edit: (stats update)

new season lows:name (new season low (place), season best at last race - season low at last race) | differenceAstunce 18,11-14 (-4)Alexander Wurz 14,6-12 (-2)Oompa 5,2-4 (-1)Carlos 12,5-11 (-1)Reinikainen 20,19 (-1)

I made a new safer version of the track, because the old one pretty much guaranteed massive pileups in the race. Unfortunately that means that every qualifying lap driven until now had to be invalidated, I hope that's not too big of an issue.

About the last race, the start and the first few laps were way better then I could expect. I hadn't practiced at all for about 3 days before the race and instead I had to play GeneRally (doing some testing before new season) which feels completely different of course so I lost some confidence in TS. Actually I would have forgotten about the race if not for Gzehoo who reminded me about it at the last minute and briefly explained the rules and so I learned there's fuel and tyres but had no idea how it really works and how would the car behave with additional mass and I had to learn it in the process for the first few laps.

Turn 1 was ok, I didn't ruin nobody's race, although not 100% clean, someone bumped slightly into me, I bumped into someone, I guess normal stuff on T1 then I become entangled into a nice fight for 5th place with Silva, Whiplash and Oompa, a fight which could last a lot longer if not for my accident with Silva first (after watching replay I think it was a racing incident, I went a bit too deep but I was already on the inside...) and the super-optimistic move by Oompa which kinda redefined my race objectives, to put it politely.

In terms of raw pace I could maintain 5th position but then I was a total newbie in terms of strategy so it was sure I would lose a few seconds due to bad timing and in the pit lane and so it was. But at least my mistakes during pit stops were fueling my fight with Silva because right after being overtaken he would undercut me and later each time leaving the pit lane I would emerge behind him and we could go on. Our duel was definitely a highlight to me so all in all it's not bad that it ended up like this becaue otherwise my race would have been pretty boring I think.

Or maybe I would be fighting all race for P5 instead but we will never know.

Really sad that I had to "win" the race due to a disconnection in the last 2 laps. Mike, to me you were the rightful winner yesterday, for what it's worth.

Still, I had my own share of problems, starting with a certain white-yellow car that took a total kamizake line through the first turn and damaged me badly enough that I couldn't keep up with Mike. This made me feel forced to stop early, putting me on the back foot for the remainder of the race. I started to believe something was possible when I was leading around the halfway mark, hoping to keep Mike behind me until lap 27-28 so we could battle on relatively even terms in the last stint, but that all disappeared when I went offroad in a really bad place. He flew past me and I decided to come in, thinking my race was over and I would just do a 3-stopper to make the car more enjoyable and maybe also to get the fastest lap in the end. This strategy actually opened a small window of opportunity for me though, because it made Mike come out a fair bit behind me when he made his second stop, which meant that I had no choice but to keep going. I had some good hopes and a decent gap until 5 laps to go, but my tyres were getting progressively worse at that point and my lead was evaporating quickly. In the end there was not much I could do to keep him behind, and he sealed the victory by outbraking me in the slowest turn of the track. Yes, that's the story I'm sticking with, even if the official race results say otherwise.

Tijny wrote:I had my own share of problems, starting with a certain white-yellow car that took a total kamizake line through the first turn and damaged me badly enough that I couldn't keep up with Mike.

I had only two runs in qualifying and started 11th? and had fights with Azev, Wurz, Silva and cohorts. After that I was sixth, behind the leading 5 and in front of the rest (duh), so nothing really happened after, and I figured I would be alone the whole race. I rose at 7 for work so I wanted to be fit and it turned out I needed the extra sleep. Sorry for abandoning. It felt bad enough. I'll practice more for next

Big enough that it meant I was struggling to fight off Jurgen instead of trying to put pressure on Mike. In lap 9 J was right on my ass, and at that point I had the choice to lose time battling him for a while longer, or make a gamble by pitting and try to salvage my race that way. I imagine in some universes that might have actually worked out for me. The thing is that if Mike gains 5 seconds on me early on, it's almost impossible to close that - he is that good. And this way it was actually a fun battle until 3 laps to go.

Azev wrote:Nice race with the discord extra! We were just 4 there, quiet most of the time, but it adds fun to the race!...

Good race, yes ... but not for me.I realized that in the beginning of the race I didn't have cigarettes and that conditioned all my race... ( i still have to go out to buy that shit...)... f***Yeah discord extra was nice... thats true... but my english isnt Important things: - I should apologize Kid (lap 14)... Sry Kid but we had diferente strategy and on that lap i was faster. Diferente brake spots and throttle and some stupidity mine, caused that caos in the same curve... Sorry for that, my fault. But in the end... justice was made... If we had crossed later... i would have given position back... like i tried with azev.Even more important things: - Next race it will be diferente i suppose... Silva with two packets backup cigarettes and alot of beer... p4 at least

0.2-0.3 per lap.Simulated the conditions from yesterday, more or less. Warmup with 94% damage, I could get a fuelless and tyreless 1.18.33 34 and 43 or so in 20-25 laps - those felt like 1 18 0- 1 18 1s, maybe 1 18 2s under normal conditions with no damage.Then I drove the simulation of Tijny's first stint: crashing myself into 94% with somewhat accurate amount of fuel and tyres used. In Tijny's shoes I drove somewhat the exact same pace.Then I drove my 1st stint (without damage) and as expected my pace was better than in the race yesterday: about 1.7sec in 7 laps better pace (taking out a slow lap by T), so: around 0.2-0.3 per lap.With the additional first lap lead and T's mistake that were already 3-4 seconds and stopping early instead of fighting vs a solid fast Jurgen felt like the right strategy for Tijny.

The race:Good start reaction time for me (thx power again for your stats!), Whip damaged Tijny in the start and I was surprised T could still manage to keep place 2 after that hit. While thinking about whether I should slow down for fairness or not, I lost over a second by the unfocused suboptimal driving.Stint 2, feeling a bit in safe waters, my pace dropped a little bit until I realized that if I drive too slow, Tijny might be tempted to do a 2 stopper anyway and hope I won't be able to overtake him with a faster car in the last few laps. But it was too late and T already decided to go for it and I had to push harder in order to overtake him as soon as possible. For my luck, he went offroad at a very bad part and the race seemed to be somewhat over for him at that point. Yet again, he chose to immediately pit, so he would lead the race after I would do my 2nd stop.But with tyres in the end that are as sucky as those you have in a 1 stop strategy, things were supposed to get quite tough for him. Nonetheless, his 3rd stint pace was quite solid and I was watching too much on the laptimes until the last 5-7 laps. I then rather focused on pushing hard and drove a rather unusual fastest lap with 66% tyres and 10% fuel left. While I lost a second due to Astunce and maybe a bit due to Ayrton or maybe Magnam (i forgot), Tijny certainly had worse things to handle during the race.

Either way: a lot of players made space very very fairly and partly drove offroad again...just to respect the blue flags. Thanks for that guys! I appreciate this.

Anyway, in lap 43 or so I managed to overtake Tijny and build up a lead slightly more than the draft zone in a safe way, I felt confident to end up as race winner in likely more than 95% of the cases.At this point, Jormeli was in 5th with a decent chance to catch Whip and get 4th. He did not only catch him in the very last lap, but he also made the podium due to my disconnection. How were the chances, guys?

A bit weird is, that in stint 2 I hardly heard anyone in Discord anymore. But it felt like I heard people connecting and disconnecting. Which made me think multiple times that my connection is gone or something. But luckily it wasn't. Ironically, when I got disconnected in lap 44, I was immediately back in Discord, hearing the others, but TS still showed me the "Disconnected?" sign. After seeing T behind me driving into the forest, I actually saw the "Disconnected?" soon. But I hoped it was just a short disconnection, so I did not immedatiely hit ESC and came back. Else I could have been 3rd for sure and maaaaybe even come out in front of Jurgen and if, T would have probably let me pass in the last lap. But oh well - the race week was still great. An unexpected fast pole lap and even though my "win" in this race was rather given me by Whip's push vs T, I think I still could have managed to have a close fight vs Tijny, especially with my big fat ass in the lead in lap 1.

Fuel stats show that T used 2.4% more fuel than me - more than his usual additional handicap vs me. Quite interesting - due to the way the track was built, I assume.

Watched the race by Will and Kid Masters. Will had a lot of action in it, such as Magnam, according to his overtakes etc.. And Kid made his season best: 8th place (before it was 11th). Congrats to that!

Mike Nike wrote:Anyway, in lap 43 or so I managed to overtake Tijny and build up a lead slightly more than the draft zone in a safe way, I felt confident to end up as race winner in likely more than 95% of the cases.

You brake tested (or unthrottled) T coming out of the hairpin. I saw. T saw. God saw. There is no way to unsaw it, but he punished you accordingly and all of us will punish you next sunday, Gadget!